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A process theory of organization

Publisher: OxfordOxford University Press2014Description: xiv, 241 p.ISBN: 9780199695072; 9780199695089.Subject(s): Organization | Collective behavior | Organizational behaviorDDC classification: 302.35 Online resources: E-bookSummary: This book presents a novel and comprehensive process theory of organization applicable to ‘a world on the move’, where connectedness prevails over size, flow prevails over stability, and temporality prevails over spatiality. The process theory developed in the book draws upon process thinking in a number of areas, including process philosophy, pragmatism, phenomenology, and science and technology studies. Salient ideas from these schools are carefully woven into a process theory of organization, which makes the book not only a thought-provoking theoretical contribution, but also a much needed glimpse into the challenges faced by organizers in a world on the move. Taking a distinctly temporal view of organizational life the book shows how actors operate in an ongoing present in which they draw upon their past and project it as ambitions for the future. This ongoing work, in which technologies, concepts, and social actors take part, is crucial for the making of any type of organizational formation. A key construct of the book is that of events, which provide force, movement, and continuity to organizational life. While explaining organizing in a world on the move, the book emphasizes the recursive relationship between process and structure in such a way that novelty and continuity are seen as indispensible to one another. The theoretical framework developed is discussed in relation to selected themes in organization studies, such as change, identity, and institutions.
(http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199695072.001.0001/acprof-9780199695072)

This book presents a novel and comprehensive process theory of organization applicable to ‘a world on the move’, where connectedness prevails over size, flow prevails over stability, and temporality prevails over spatiality. The process theory developed in the book draws upon process thinking in a number of areas, including process philosophy, pragmatism, phenomenology, and science and technology studies. Salient ideas from these schools are carefully woven into a process theory of organization, which makes the book not only a thought-provoking theoretical contribution, but also a much needed glimpse into the challenges faced by organizers in a world on the move. Taking a distinctly temporal view of organizational life the book shows how actors operate in an ongoing present in which they draw upon their past and project it as ambitions for the future. This ongoing work, in which technologies, concepts, and social actors take part, is crucial for the making of any type of organizational formation. A key construct of the book is that of events, which provide force, movement, and continuity to organizational life. While explaining organizing in a world on the move, the book emphasizes the recursive relationship between process and structure in such a way that novelty and continuity are seen as indispensible to one another. The theoretical framework developed is discussed in relation to selected themes in organization studies, such as change, identity, and institutions.
(http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199695072.001.0001/acprof-9780199695072)